The Complete Poems

by William Blake

  P. 58.3–4 But the soft pipe… silver voices Orc is born like Christ, in mid-winter, attended by music. Details all parallel Milton’s ‘Nativity Ode’; but the event is demonic, not divine.

  8 Earth convulsed with rending pangs In Paradise Lost IX.1000–1001, ‘Earth trembl’d from her entrails, as again/In pangs’ at the advent of original sin.

  P. 58.22-P. 59.20 The Demons of the Deep sing a ‘carol’ for Orc’s birth. In 58.23–5 they recapitulate Night 1.22.12–15. Then, since Luvah is born in the form of Orc, they call for the birth of Vala, his counterpart. This occurs in Night VII [a].

  P. 59.11–16 Torn by black storms… flames of fire Repeated with alterations in J 40.39–42.

  P. 60.3–4 He builded Golgonooza… Luban The image of the City of Prophecy, and its Gate looking out on darkness, becomes a major symbol in Jerusalem.

  6 fourteen summers & winters The puberty of Orc precipitates an Oedipal triangle. Rebellion challenges his father but is repressed by a Chain of Jealousy. The episode is repeated with alterations from BU 20.9–24.

  26–8 the iron mountains top… naild him down The infant Oedipus was left by his parents to die with pierced ankles on a mountain.

  P. 61.2 the Demons rage flamd Orc’s element is fire.

  10 Storgous Appetite From Gr. storge, instinctive parental affection for the young.

  11 His limbs bound down mock Youthful rebellion is spiritually free and alive, despite repression.

  18–20 His eyes… Vala Orc sees into the secrets of Nature. (Note that the objects of Orc’s expansive perceptions, as well as the images of his own being, are all from Nature; such is his kingdom in this world.)

  P. 62.22–P. 63.3 Lo the young limbs… one with him Repression begins as an external force, but soon is internalized by the individual. Then it is too late to undo.

  P. 62.30 Neither instinct nor passion can defeat repression. (Note the echo of Humpty-Dumpty.)

  P. 63.11 Enitharmon on the road of Dranthon Enitharmon’s conversion begins. The term ‘road of Dranthon’ is not developed elsewhere, but in Acts 9 the future Apostle Paul is converted by a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus.

  11–12 the inmost gate… burst open Enitharmon’s previously ‘hard’ heart begins to break. Suffering begins the process of redemption, and she sees true visions.

  23 Urizen lies enclosed in the world constructed by Urthona–Los (in Night IV) after his own world fell in ruins when he rejected Ahania (idealism) in Night 111. The distant struggles of incipient Rebellion awaken him to memory of his former eternal state and realization of his error.

  26 the sons of wisdom Urizen’s sons in Eternity.

  27 the Virgins sang The Muses sang (Urizen as ‘Prince of Light’ in Eternity was identical with Apollo, parent of the Muses).

  P. 64.3 Nine virgins The nine Muses.

  14 O I refusd the Lord of day Intellect (day) refused to serve his Lord, the Divine Vision who created him.

  21–2 the mild & holy voice… shine The voice of the Divine Vision saying ‘Let there be light’ (Genesis 1:3).

  24 guide my Son Intellect was supposed to have been the guide of Mankind, Albion.

  26 the night of councils dark The negotiations between the Prince of Light and Luvah, each desiring dominance over Man. Urizen’s version of the Fall corresponds with that told by the Ambassadors in Night 1, P. 21.

  27 The stars… their spears From ‘When the stars threw down their spears’, ‘The Tyger’, SE, p. 125 above.

  29–31 Luvah… the golden cup Luvah was the vintner of Eternity, as Urizen was the ploughman with his horses. Urizen made the bread of communion, Luvah the wine; they should not have changed places (see 65.5–7)

  P. 65.12 The closed intellect rejects divine Love, thus forcing it into a hellish form. Luvah has been born as Orc – a demon – because Love’s only outlet now is Rebellion.

  NIGHT THE SIXTH

  Urizen explores his dens.

  Urizen sets out in search of Orc. He is now no longer the cosmic Creator, but a fallen mind wandering through its own ruins. He begins badly, by cursing his daughters at the Water of Life. He travels through the realm of Tharmas (west), sees but cannot heal the sufferings of men in his own realm (south) who have inherited his curse, and falls into the void of Luvah’s world (east). Here he undergoes repeated falls, deaths and resurrections, which represent successive civilizations in history, but his intellectual confusion persists. Desperate to gain control, he creates fixed ‘Sciences’ and a Web of Religion. Still sorrowing, he approaches the world of Urthona-Los (north) and the chained Orc.

  P. 67.1 Urizen… explord his dens The journey of Urizen parallels that of Satan through Hell and Chaos (Paradise Lost 11).

  1–3 his Spear… helmet Weapon and armour indicate that Urizen’s repentance (close of Night v) was incomplete.

  5 three terrific women Urizen’s daughters may recall the Fates, the Furies, the Three Witches in Macbeth or – since he soon curses them – the three daughters of King Lear. They rain, gather into a spring, and divide into rivers, the water of life.

  P. 68.3 dry the rocky strand Reason dries up the waters of life.

  16–19 I will reverse… stinking corruptibility Thus God curses the daughters of Zion (Isaiah 3:24): ‘Instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness… and burning instead of beauty.’

  P. 70.21–48 The horrid shapes… ruind world The sufferings inflicted in Urizen’s world include torture, slavery, industrial labour, prisons, servitude of the weak to the strong, and the dominance of materialism – iron, brass and gold.

  P. 71.18–19 he stood a while… voyage Thus Satan in Paradise Lost 11.918–19 ‘Stood on the brink of Hell and look’d a while/Pondering his Voyage’.

  23 bottomless vacuity Thus Satan in Paradise Lost 11.932 falls through ‘vast vacuity’.

  32–4 flight…. another resurrection Urizen’s voyage now spans the history of mankind. His repeated births, growths and deaths are the rises and falls of civilizations.

  35 But still his books he bore Urizen’s scriptures are the dogmas of successive civilizations. They remain unconsumed – though perpetually augmented with scholarly commentary – throughout history. Although the ‘death clothes’ of particular dogmas may rot as a particular civilization declines, dogmatism in itself persists.

  P. 73.14 Here will I fix my foot Urizen resolves to systematize the intellectual confusion of his kingdom. The compass image is a dominant emblem of the god of Reason, and one which B. dwelt on persistently, as in the frontispiece to Europe and the Notebook epigram ‘To God’ (p. 628): ‘If you have formd a Circle to go into/Go into it yourself & see how you would do.’

  15 Mountains of Brass promise much riches Mammon argues similarly to his fellow demons in Paradise Lost 11.270–73.

  21 the Sciences were fixd An ‘Age of Enlightenment’ tyrannizes over mankind more strictly than any previous age. Possibly B. is thinking of ‘classical’ Graeco-Roman culture, which he despised.

  31 a dire Web See the ‘Net of Religion’, BU VIII, p. 257 above. Urizen’s systematic rationalism connects one ‘vortex’ of intellect to another, and further imprisons mankind.

  P. 74.8 rending the web Mankind’s spiritual agony causes rips in the web of religion, but does not destroy it.

  12 Four Caverns The four Zoas now have four mental prisons, and their regions (except for Urthona’s) are dislocated from those of Eternity. In ll. 14–19, Orc is fire, Urizen is air, Urthona is earth, and Tharmas is water, assailing the rest.

  P. 75.6 the Shadow of Urthona Urizen meets the Spectre of Urthona, last seen in Night IV. Pp. 49–51. He is now a crude warrior-figure combining attributes of Orion, Hercules and the Norse god Thor.

  19–21 Four winged heralds… fifty two armies The four seasons, and the weeks in a year, are the troops of Urthona-Los, who is Time. The passage is taken with alterations from America, cancelled Pl. [c] 14–17

  25–6 Uri
zen… Retiring Time forces Reason into temporary retreat. Compare the confrontation between Satan and the Angel Gabriel with his troops in Paradise Lost IV.877–1015.

  NIGHT THE SEVENTH [a]

  The lapse of Orc; birth of the Shadowy Female; reunion of Los and Enitharmon.

  This night divides into three episodes, of which the first two trace the consolidation of Urizen’s power and the ‘horrible’ birth of a goddess of Nature. But in the third, out of the depths of grief and despair, the positive activity of prophetic art at last gets under way. The episodes are as follows:

  1. Reason (Urizen) at last encounters Revolution (Orc), with envious snowstorms trying to cool Orc’s fires. Urizen now has degenerated to simple tyranny. He is the God–priest–king–politician–intellectual authoritarian, desperately resisting change. The Tree of Mystery shoots up around him. Urizen pretends to pity Orc, is confused by his incomprehensible ‘joy’. Orc scorns his pity and mocks his rigidity. Urizen compels his daughters to knead the bread of sorrow as a demonstration of his power, and reads a cynical sermon on how to control the poor. His hypocrisy weakens Orc, who lapses into a worm or serpent, and is made by Urizen to climb the Tree of Mystery.

  2. The Los-Enitharmon story resumes (81.7). At the close of Night v they had failed to free Orc, and ‘all their after life was lamentation’. Now Enitharmon’s Shadow (her life force, ‘spirit’ or vitality) leaves her each night to mourn for Orc beneath the Tree of Mystery, and Los is left with an unresponsive wife. Urthona’s Spectre (remnant of unfallen Los) courts and embraces Enitharmon’s Shadow, and a ‘wonder horrible’ is born. This is the earthly form of Vala, later called the SHADOWY FEMALE. She is the seductive goddess of Nature.

  3. At this point (85.13) Enitharmon’s heart finally breaks completely, while mankind declines, lured by Nature. Los reunites with the Spectre, who promises another better world within, and they work together to build GOLGONOOZA (City of Art). Los eats the fruit of the Tree of Mystery, but resists self-destruction and begins to create living works of Art, with Enitharmon’s help.

  P. 77.5 But Urizen… Caves of Orc Reason encounters Revolution, aflame. In the all-consuming fires of revolutionary passion, reason’s horses of instruction and lions and tygers of wrath can only suffer. The Scales of Justice are melted by the oil-burning Lamps of revolutionary mercy. The plough and harrow of Eternity become mired in bloody fields, among scenes of battle instead of agriculture.

  18 Urizen approachd not near Reason dares not deal directly with Revolution.

  P. 78.2 His book of iron Urizen’s code of war.

  5–6 the root of Mystery… Branches The Tree of Mystery grows from Reason’s hostility to Revolution. Reason – trying to maintain the status quo, or to damp the fires of Rebellion – is forced to take the position that sacred truths must remain incomprehensible to men.

  9–12 These lines are repeated from The Book of Ahania, 3.68–74.

  17–32 Image of dread… Yet thou dost laugh Reason cannot understand the terrible joy of Revolution, which persists despite Promethean tortures.

  30 Pity for thee movd me Urizen is hypocritical or self-deluding. He sought Orc out of nervous dread about the future (III.38.10–11, v.65.10–12).

  P. 79.3 Thou art not chaind Why shouldst thou sit Revolution, in turn, cannot understand the rigidity of Reason.

  23 bread of Sorrow From God’s punishment of Adam (Genesis 3:17–19): ‘cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it… In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.’

  25 Eleth, Uveth, Ona Urizen’s daughters.

  P. 80.1 Urizen Read in his book of brass in sounding tones Urizenic economics, in tones of ‘sounding brass’ that ‘have not charity’ (I Corinthians 13:1).

  9–14 Compell the poor… with temper William Pitt as Lord of the Treasury in the 1800 Bread Bill debate countered complaints of scarcity and proposals for lowered prices with an insistence that the poor should be encouraged ‘to diminish the consumption’ and that Parliament should ‘act with proper temper, firmness and sobriety’ (see Erdman, 341–2). The principles of 11. 9, 16 recur in f 44.30–31.

  12–14 And when his children… arts The economist Malthus in a 1798 Essay on Population pointed out that war, famine and pestilence were effective checks on population growth.

  28–9 thou beginnest to weaken/My divided spirit Revolution begins to degenera te into a passive worm (such as English radicalism) or a powerful but hypocritical serpent (such as French radicalism subverted by Napoleon). See Erdman, 348.

  31 Am I a worm ‘But I am a worm, and no man’ (Psalm 22:6).

  P. 81.3–5 Orc/In Serpent form… submission Revolution has now hardened and lost its true nature. Thus it is crucified, and thus ends a historical cycle. The images are from John 3:14: ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up,’ and John 12:32: ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.’

  7 The Los-Enitharmon story resumes.

  P. 82.23 The following episode takes place ‘beneath the Tree of Mystery’. The Spectre woos and seduces the Shadow, in desperate hopes of reunion and return to Eternity. But in their conscious life above the Tree, Los and Enitharmon are unaware that this is happening.

  P. 83.4–34 I will tell… my fierce boy The Shadow of Enitharmon gives her feminine version of the Fall. She blames everything on Vala, and wants Vala punished, subjected to her son Orc. (She does not know that Orc is the fallen Luvah and thus the proper mate for Vala.)

  P. 84.5–35 Where thou & I… unite again in bliss The Spectre of Urthona recalls Eternity and the Fall, and promises (I) to cause Vala’s birth and subjection to Orc in this world; (2) to destroy Los (his own fallen form); and (3) to reunite with Enitharmon’s shadow.

  P. 85.6–7 Enitharmons shadow… a wonder horrible Vala is born on earth as the Shadowy Female: seductive Material Nature. The results are terrible (War in Night VIII) yet necessary to the process of Man’s salvation.

  11–12 then she ran… Elements Enitharmon’s subdued desire, having given birth to the Shadowy Female, returns to Enitharmon’s ‘upper’ or conscious life, producing havoc.

  13 She burst… heart Suffering finally completes Enitharmon’s heartbreak; hereafter she has the ‘broken and contrite heart’ required for salvation.

  18–21 Till many… lovely shadow In neo-Platonic doctrine, immortal souls are lured to descend into fleshly bodies by the attraction of Nature, who is commonly described as a ‘shadow’ of reality. Here, many in the fallen world sink lower still, seduced by Nature. Lacking ideals (feminine counterparts), they are wholly destructive.

  22 Nature becomes the guardian of Revolution. See Orc and the Shadowy Female in the preludium to America, pp. 208–10 above; and the Babe and Woman Old in ‘The Mental Traveller’, Pickering MS., p. 499 below.

  P. 87.9 new heavens & a new Earth From Revelation 21:1–2: ‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away… And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.’

  11–13 A Threefold Atmosphere… Translucence The sky of the City of Art extends upward into the ‘threefold’ realm of Beulah. But the City’s lower limit is that of Opacity and Contraction (see IV.56.19–21, n.). In other words, the range of Art is from divine dreams at its best to malice and stupidity at its worst.

  16 Enitharmon confesses her sin (made known to her by eating the fruit of the Tree of Mystery) and despairs. She hopes Los, likewise eating the fruit, will resist the effects of guilt. But Los despairs. The idea is from Romans 7:7–9: ‘I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet… For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.’

  29 six thousand Years The fruit of the tree having been eaten, as in Genesis, recorded human history begins. At the end of this period apocalypse and redemption will occur.

  P. 90.8
–9 Stern desire… semblances Los announces the will to create works of Art in which ‘the dead’ of this world will find their true lives.

  27–8 the loud roaring flames/He vanquishd Los uses the hitherto barren flames of Reason in conflict, and Revolution enchained, for his Art.

  36–7 And first he drew… tincturd it Catherine Blake commonly coloured B.’s engravings for him.

  45 Rintrah… Palamabron Sons of Los representing Wrath and Pity (or sublime and pathetic art).

  57 soft silken veils Bodies covering the spirit.

  58 his… spirit drew Urizen Los recreates even Urizen as a form of Art, and thus is able to love him.

  63 Thiriel, Urizen’s oldest son, is the element of air (see BU VIII). Reason enters sublime art; his son enters pathetic art.

  NIGHT THE SEVENTH [b]

  Empire, War and the dominion of Nature.

  A separate fragment, partially tallying with the situation at the close of VII [a], although [a] was written later than [b] and may have been intended to replace it. Pp. 95.15–98 follow 91.1–95.14 in the MS., but B. indicates that the two halves of this Night should be transposed. In the transposed reading, events are as follows:

  Urizen develops an empire, builds a temple and prepares for conquest. Los opposes him. Tharmas allies himself with Los. Finally Orc breaks loose and rends the Shadowy Female. Thus all the Zoas have become involved in destruction. The elemental gods celebrate this with a cruel war song. Orc has now become fully serpentine – Revolution subverted – and the Shadowy Female triumphs in the war. She tries, unsuccessfully, to make Tharmas her ally. She remains, despite her triumph, a ‘howling melancholy’. Amid the devastation, the Daughters of Beulah remember the divine promise of regeneration, even while men sink lower into a Satanic state.

  P. 95.20 Urizen triumphs as God, ‘Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain’ (Psalm 104:2).

  32–3 Urizen… Builded a temple in the image of the human heart Worship of the ‘selfish virtues of the natural heart’ is condemned in f 52.

  P. 96.1–2 And in the inner part… Secret place B. here condemns the mysteries of priestcraft and ritual. The Tabernacle of the Temple, in Old Testament times, could be entered only by the High Priest. B. interprets this ‘secret place’ sexually, claiming that the priests pretend to worship purity and repress sexuality, yet practise ‘secret lust’.